Please welcome guest blogger Giselle Renarde

Are we all having mid-90’s SNL flashbacks now? Should I sing a few bars? And dance?

First off, thanks to 69 Shades of Smut for letting me crash the blog to talk about smut and my ebook Nanny State–a kinktacular lesbian sextravaganza.

If you ask me, Nanny State is SMUT with a capital S (and M… and U and T). It’s a story driven by some of the kinkiest sex I’ve ever written, and some of the most intense discipline. It’s a story built around sex and control, a stern landlady introducing university-aged Summer to extreme kink. It’s deliciously dirty, start to finish. To me, that’s smut, and I rejoice in this label I’ve adhered to my yummy little book.

But one night I happened to refer to Nanny State as “smut” in front of my girlfriend, and she was taken aback. My Sweet happens to be a grammar geek and editor extraordinaire, so she helped me shape Nanny State into its current and final form.

“Nanny State isn’t smut!” she said. “It’s fun and (something) and delightful!” *I say (something) because I know there was a word in the middle of that statement, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. This is what happens when I don’t write things down.

Anyway, I put up a counter-argument. There’s sex in every chapter of this book, and the sex is what drives the narrative forward like a locomotive engine. To me, that’s smut.

This is sounding a whole lot like the recent “erotica versus erotic romance” debate that gave moral primacy to a very specific sort of story line narrowly delineated by the progression of a love relationship and its culmination in the promise of a future together.

Strangely enough, by those standards, Nanny State fits the “erotic romance” category. Well, if you ignore the fact that there are ultimately 3 women who form this “happy couple” and one of them takes on a very maternal role over the other two. And the fact that the budding relationship between Summer and university peer Kira begins when Summer offers Kira money in exchange for sex.

You’d never see it in the beginning, but a strong love develops between all three women in this book. The love comes via sex, discipline, control, rebellion, age play, and ultimately abandoning ego concerns to give oneself over to another.

I’m pretty sure every author will tell you every so often they write a book that seems to come out of nowhere. They didn’t plan it, it was way out of their comfort zone, but at the same time it seemed to write itself. Nanny State was one of those books. I’m a pretty prolific author, but this book got me excited. I remember sitting here writing 3 words and then bouncing in my chair, clapping my hands, and saying, “Oh my god, that’s so hot!”

And, to me, that’s smut. It was so hot, so dirty, so beyond my own kink zone (especially the extreme age play–Summer and Kira even dress up as babies and suckle Nanny’s breasts) and yet so fascinating that it got me excited.

My sense is that “smut” is a word we erotica authors are beginning to reclaim. Not all, but some, and that’s always how it starts out. My Sweet is “of a different generation” (that’s my polite way of calling her an old lady LOL) and we often come up against linguistic comfort zone differences. For instance, I identify as queer, whereas she cringes when she hears the word, because of its connotations prior to being reclaimed.

What is SMUT these days? Is the word well on its way to being reclaimed, or does it still spell CRAP in most people’s minds? Does love, or even a story line, preclude a book from being categorized as smut? Or is smut just code for hot sex in any context?

What do we think, people?

Hugs,

Giselle Renarde

Canada just got hotter!

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Giselle Renarde is smutifying the world with quirky stories like Nanny State:

When Summer moves in with her mother’s friend, she expects to be treated like an adult. Fat chance! Victoria exerts control over every aspect of her life, protectively setting parental controls on the television and demanding Summer come straight home after her university classes.

Everything changes the day Victoria catches Summer watching some very kinky lesbian porn. The landlady soon becomes the ‘Nanny’, coaxing Summer into the big bed for play time.

The unlikely couple embarks upon a series of naughty adventures, from suckling to discipline to diapers. But what happens when Summer wants to include a girl her own age? Will Nanny punish the wayward girl or accept another charge into their uncommon household?

Warnings: This title contains graphic descriptions of lesbian sex and threesomes, age play, spankings, discipline, domination, and other fetish activities that may be considered objectionable to some readers.

Thanks for being with us on 69 Shades, Giselle. I think the word smut and the slut are a lot alike. Both words used to mean not-so-nice things, but now we’re reclaiming them, and they’re actually a badge of honor!

I guess it depends on whom you ask. Some will always associate the word with filthy fiction, for some (us!) it’s just a synonym for a red-hot read. The rest are on the fence but stealing glances this way. Oh yes you are, admit it. Don’t fight us…join us!